Five Things That Happened On February 19 In Soap History

In 1990, Steve (Stephen Nichols) and Kayla’s (Mary Beth Evans) baby girl, Stephanie Johnson, was born on Days of Our Lives. It was not exactly a storybook birth; Kayla, who had been arrested for the murder of Steve's first wife, Marina Toscano, went into labor while defending her life on the witness stand. Steve helped deliver their child, but Kayla was soon convicted and was separated from her firstborn. Ultimately, Kayla was exonerated and reunited with Stephanie and Steve.

In 1991, General Hospital superstar Anthony Geary (pictured with Crystal Carson as Julia Barrett) returned to the show after a seven-year absence — but as Bill Eckert, not the role that had made him a daytime legend (Luke Spencer). GH received significant backlash for thrusting Bill (and the other members of the Eckert family) to the front burner at the expense of beloved figures like the Quartermaines, and in 1993, when Geary agreed to resume playing Luke, Bill was killed off. That year, the actor conceded in an interview with Soap Opera Weekly that “there wasn’t any interest in Bill, except on my part.”

In 1996 on Young and Restless, Nick Newman (Joshua Morrow) and Sharon Collins (Sharon Case) tied the knot. This was my first soap wedding," Case recalled to Soap Opera Digest in 2022. "I was so excited. I was in my 20s and it felt like the real thing. There were all these fittings and just putting on a wed-ding gown makes a woman feel happy. I loved this dress because the big skirt had those colorful embroidered flowers, which was the trend back then. I remember just before that time, white wedding dresses with colored belts was the big fad. Sharon’s dress was really sweet and very age-appropriate. I loved the see-through cap sleeves. I felt like a princess.” 

In 2001 on One Life to Live, Todd Manning (Roger Howarth) dumped Blair Cramer (Kassie DePaiva) at the altar after a vengeful Max Holden tricked Todd into thinking she had been unfaithful to him with Max on the eve of their nuptials. Once the ceremony got underway at the Palace Hotel, Todd was asked by the officiant (played by longtime Edge of Night star Forrest Compton [ex-Mike Karr]) if he took Blair to be his lawfully wedded wife. "Hell no!" spat Todd. "She shot her last husband in the back!" Chaos ensued, and while the bride and groom did not get hitched, they did spend what would have been their wedding night in adjoining jail cells.

In 2007, during the Jerry Jacks-led hostage crisis at the Metro Court, Elizabeth Webber (Rebecca Herbst) and Jason Morgan (Steve Burton) were trapped together in an elevator on General Hospital. At the time, a pregnant Liz had been concealing the fact that Jason was the father of her unborn child (Jake), but the dire circumstances prompted Liz to come clean. When she felt the baby kicking, Liz took his hand and placed it on her belly so he could feel the movement. "You're the reason this baby's alive," she told him. "Jason, Lucky's not the father of this baby. You are."